Crocodiles of the World News from Crocodiles Of The World

Kifaru Bwana said:
It is getting better and better. As herpphile I am glad.

I wish more zoos would invest in maintaining and breeding endangered crocs. It is all worth it …. Perhaps, with the current crop of crocodilian based zoos in Europe we might slowly see a change.
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Although I agree that it is great to see zoos taking on the investment of a range of crocodiles I would have to say that Crocs of the World is not the most aesthetic zoo I've visited. The exhibits are based inside barely-modified farm barns and are pretty samey (concrete ponds with a woodchip substrate) with very little attention to landscaping (no planting within most croc exhibits). Obviously doesn't help that crocodilians are pretty similar looking beasts either (I personally appreciated the different species, but the casual visitor...). I understand that they have added some non-crocs since my visit early in 2015. Also not too sure how much expansion they can do as the site looked pretty much full.
 
tetrapod said:
Also not too sure how much expansion they can do as the site looked pretty much full.
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There is quite a large chunk of site still to be developed, I believe! Zoogiraffe would know better than I just how much, but I suspect there is sufficent space for every extant crocodile taxon to be displayed in suitably-sized exhibits, were the collection to complete the set.

As for your other point, I'd imagine that some of the aesthetics of the collection might be polished up over the coming years, but the general look of the site is pretty damn good considering they managed to move site and open within months of getting access to their new site.
 
They have more than enough space to expand to over 3 times its current size,and still have room for a car park capable of handling around 500 cars.
 
A picture on their Facebook page show the young of 6 crocodilian species bred in 2015 . I am aware of American alligator , Siamese and African dwarf crocodile . What were the other 3 species ?

Some of the baby American alligators have been introduced to their parent's enclosure where they are doing well .
 
They have also bred Cuviers Dwarf Caiman,now the other 2 have me stumped as most of the other species are in single sex groups or single animals,the only other possible species I think could be the Chinese Alligators and Smooth-fronted Caiman.

Have just realised it could also be the False Gharial,that were suppose to have been at RSCC but never were,as they were housed at COTW from day one of them arriving in the UK!!
 
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zoogiraffe said:
They have also bred Cuviers Dwarf Caiman,now the other 2 have me stumped as most of the other species are in single sex groups or single animals,the only other possible species I think could be the Chinese Alligators and Smooth-fronted Caiman.

Have just realised it could also be the False Gharial,that were suppose to have been at RSCC but never were,as they were housed at COTW from day one of them arriving in the UK!!
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Thanks ZG , check the photo on COTW Facebook , see if you can identify them . I was surprised at 6 species .
 
The last one looks like a crocodile - as they specify "hatched" and not "bred" maybe the juvenile Freshwater Crocodiles they now hold were received as eggs and not hatchlings?

Great though it would be for the last one to be the Sunda Gharial, the young of that taxon are pretty distinctive in appearance:

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I'm not sure the collection has a breeding pair of Spectacled, despite MikeG's suggestion that Spectacled Caiman may be one of the taxa.

As such I think the total might be as follows: Dwarf Crocodile, Siamese Crocodile, American Alligator, Chinese Alligator, Cuvier's Caiman and Freshwater Crocodile.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
The last one looks like a crocodile - as they specify "hatched" and not "bred" maybe the juvenile Freshwater Crocodiles they now hold were received as eggs and not hatchlings?

Great though it would be for the last one to be the Sunda Gharial, the young of that taxon are pretty distinctive in appearance:

476812482.jpg


I'm not sure the collection has a breeding pair of Spectacled, despite MikeG's suggestion that Spectacled Caiman may be one of the taxa.

As such I think the total might be as follows: Dwarf Crocodile, Siamese Crocodile, American Alligator, Chinese Alligator, Cuvier's Caiman and Freshwater Crocodile.
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But surely Cuvier's dwarf Caiman, Dwarf crocodile, American & Chinese Alligators all have dark blotches on their lower jaw as hatchlings? I only see 3 crocodilians with marked jaws in the photograph.
Short-snouted baby in the middle left really does look like a spectacled...
 
TeaLovingDave said:
as they specify "hatched" and not "bred" maybe ... they ... were received as eggs and not hatchlings?
....

I'm not sure the collection has a breeding pair of Spectacled
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Completely baseless speculation, but your own post offers a solution..!
 
After some pondering and image comparing, I tentatively put forward this line-up:
On left (from top): American Alligator, Spectacled Caiman, Chinese Alligator
On right (from top): Siamese Crocodile, possibly freshwater crocodile, Dwarf Crocodile
 
Swampy said:
After some pondering and image comparing, I tentatively put forward this line-up:
On left (from top): American Alligator, Spectacled Caiman, Chinese Alligator
On right (from top): Siamese Crocodile, possibly freshwater crocodile, Dwarf Crocodile
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As zoogiraffe stated that Cuvier's Caiman is a definite, I think the following amendment is possibly the correct arrangement:

Left (from top): Dwarf Crocodile, Spectacled Caiman, American Alligator
Right (from top): Siamese Crocodile, possible Freshwater Crocodile, Cuvier's Caiman
 
TeaLovingDave said:
As zoogiraffe stated that Cuvier's Caiman is a definite, I think the following amendment is possibly the correct arrangement:

Left (from top): Dwarf Crocodile, Spectacled Caiman, American Alligator
Right (from top): Siamese Crocodile, possible Freshwater Crocodile, Cuvier's Caiman
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The only alterations i'd make to this are swapping the Cuvier's and the Dwarf Crocodile- the eye on the bottom right individual is just not the right colour to be a Cuvier's.
 
Could the other Crocodylus be Morelet's, rather than Australian freshwater?
 
zoogiraffe said:
Doubt it as the animals held at the place are female!
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Parthenogenesis? :)
Seriously, there is still a question about the sixth species, as the Australian freshwater crocs were hatched in Frankfurt and came to the UK as babies.
 
Some fantastic news; the pair of Sunda Gharial which have been held off-display at Crocodiles of the World for nearly two years have finally gone on-display in a new extension :) as - from what I have heard - these are significantly larger individuals than most present within Europe, it should be pretty damn good to see them.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Some fantastic news; the pair of Sunda Gharial which have been held off-display at Crocodiles of the World for nearly two years have finally gone on-display in a new extension :) as - from what I have heard - these are significantly larger individuals than most present within Europe, it should be pretty damn good to see them.
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They are certainly bigger than any of the ones in the UK,until I see the male for myself I will reserve judgement on if he is bigger,than the male that is now at Leipzig that used to be at Tierpark Berlin.But it is excellent news that at last people in the UK can see a proper Thomistoma!!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Some fantastic news; the pair of Sunda Gharial which have been held off-display at Crocodiles of the World for nearly two years have finally gone on-display in a new extension :) as - from what I have heard - these are significantly larger individuals than most present within Europe, it should be pretty damn good to see them.
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Nice.

Any idea where they arrived from originally (source(s))?

What size are they?
 
zoogiraffe said:
They are certainly bigger than any of the ones in the UK,until I see the male for myself I will reserve judgement on if he is bigger,than the male that is now at Leipzig that used to be at Tierpark Berlin.But it is excellent news that at last people in the UK can see a proper Thomistoma!!
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How do they compare in size to chester's never really took much notice of them before tbh but I thought chesters seemed impressive.
 
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